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Wednesday, February 25, 2015

2410 Fulgeaters

There was an interesting news item
not long ago that speaks to why education is a good idea. Especially education
in the classics. It also spoke to how sometimes internet trolls really need to
think first and flame later. Then again, it's fun to see how dumb they sound
when they're calling other people dumb.

Not that they'd ever get the irony.

The story: In the state of Vermont
a young person submitted a motto for consideration to be added to the one
Vermont had already, which is "Freedom and Unity."

The one the student suggested was
in Latin: Stella Quarta Decima Fulgeat. Which means The 14th Star Shines
Bright. Because Vermont was the fourteenth state in the United States in case
you're wondering.

A local TV station ran the story
and it wasn't long before the comments section on their website lit up with
vitriol about those damn immigrants and their damn language being used instead
of our number one American language English, and so on.

Any intelligent person who has ever
been fascinated by the amazing hate being spewed for any inane reason
whatsoever in a comments section can easily supply their own dull receptive
content here.

Suffice it say, it didn't occur to
the fulminating haters that Latin is a dead language that's the foundation of
much of our own language and it comes from early Italy. Not Latin as in
Latinos, who speak Spanish or some derivative therefrom.

Latin, BTW, is not entirely dead.
It's still used by scientists and those who study the classics in education.

Latin or no, when they said the
14th star shines bright, they meant bright as in blinding your eyes, not bright
as in intelligent. So Vermont haters don't need to feel threatened.